Image processing apparatus and method, recording medium and program

Abstract

An image processing apparatus and method is disclosed wherein a plurality of images having different aspect ratios can be displayed with minimized distortion on the same display screen. An image processing apparatus records a thumbnail image with an aspect ratio of 4:3. When a thumbnail image whose aspect ratio is corrected from 16:9 to 4:3 is to be displayed on a display screen whose aspect ratio is 4:3, the thumbnail image is reduced so as to have a heightwise dimension reduced to ¾. On the other hand, when a thumbnail image whose aspect ratio remains 4:3 and is not corrected is to be displayed on a display screen whose aspect ratio is 16:9, the thumbnail image is reduced so as to have a widthwise dimension reduced to ¾. The present invention can be applied to a digital video camera.

1 . An image processing apparatus, comprising: 
 determining means for determining a relationship between a first aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a source image of a thumbnail image and a second aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a display screen on which the thumbnail image is to be displayed;    reduction means for reducing, where the first and second aspect ratios are different from each other, the height or the width of the thumbnail image; and    outputting means for outputting the thumbnail image of the reduced height or width.    
     
     
         2 . The image processing apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein, where the first aspect ratio is 16:9 and the second aspect ratio is 4:3, said reduction means reduces the height of the thumbnail image to ¾.  
     
     
         3 . The image processing apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein, where the first aspect ratio is 4:3 and the second aspect ratio is 16:9, said reduction means reduces the width of the thumbnail image to ¾.  
     
     
         4 . An image processing method for an image processing apparatus, comprising the steps of: 
 determining a relationship between a first aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a source image of a thumbnail image and a second aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a display screen on which the thumbnail image is to be displayed;    reducing, where the first and second aspect ratios are different from each other, the height or the width of the thumbnail image; and    outputting the thumbnail image of the reduced height or width.    
     
     
         5 . A recording medium on or in which a computer-readable program for image processing for an image processing apparatus is recorded, the program comprising the steps of: 
 determining a relationship between a first aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a source image of a thumbnail image and a second aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a display screen on which the thumbnail image is to be displayed;    reducing, where the first and second aspect ratios are different from each other, the height or the width of the thumbnail image; and    outputting the thumbnail image of the reduced height or width.    
     
     
         6 . A program for causing a computer of an image processing apparatus to execute image processing, said program comprising the steps of: 
 determining a relationship between a first aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a source image of a thumbnail image and a second aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a display screen on which the thumbnail image is to be displayed;    reducing, where the first and second aspect ratios are different from each other, the height or the width of the thumbnail image; and    outputting the thumbnail image of the reduced height or width.    
     
     
         7 . An image processing apparatus, comprising: 
 a determining section for determining a relationship between a first aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a source image of a thumbnail image and a second aspect ratio which is an aspect ratio of a display screen on which the thumbnail image is to be displayed;    a reduction section for reducing, where the first and second aspect ratios are different from each other, the height or the width of the thumbnail image; and    an outputting section for outputting the thumbnail image of the reduced height or width.